Cars Burned, Tear Gas Fired during Anti-Israeli Protest in Egypt

Egyptian students burned cars and stoned police who fired tear gas and used clubs to prevent them from taking an anti-Israeli protest to the streets o

Egyptian students on Tuesday burned cars and stoned police who fired tear gas and used clubs to prevent them from taking an anti-Israeli protest to the streets of the capital.

The police managed to keep the 5,000 protestors on the grounds of Ain Shams University in northern Cairo by sealing the gates, but clashes continued on campus, police added.

Students contacted by AFP said people had been arrested and hurt, but no official figure was available. Protestors torched both police cars and those belonging to professors.

Like other Arab countries, Egypt has been hit by a wave of demonstrations denouncing Israel's "massacre" of Palestinians who protested the September 28 visit by a righ-wing Israeli opposition leader to a Jerusalem holy site.

On Saturday, some 22 people were hurt in clashes between riot police and students at Cairo University, who were trying to march to the nearby Israeli embassy.

Demonstrations are banned in Egypt, but tolerated on university campuses.

But the Egyptian Center for Human Rights Legal Aid urged Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday to permit peaceful pro-Palestinian protests and order the police to back off.

"Citizens have the right to all legitimate means to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people against the savage aggression they are a victim of," the CHRLA said in a statement obtained by AFP on Tuesday.

"The right of citizens to assemble and protest peacefully to vent their anger (...) is the only way to have our voice heard in the court of international public opinion," the group said.

The group urged Mubarak to end the "police violence against peaceful demonstrations." – CAIRO (AFP)